Kodak to stop selling inkjet printers from 2013

(Reuters) - Eastman Kodak Co said it plans to stop selling inkjet printers from 2013 as it winds down most of its consumer businesses and focuses on commercial printing.

Printer makers are struggling with falling sales as companies cut costs and people increasingly use mobile devices to take snaps and share them digitally.

Lexmark International Inc said last month that it will stop making inkjet printers and focus on its more profitable imaging and software businesses.

Kodak, which has already shuttered its digital camera business, said on Friday it expects to incur a charge of $90 million related to the wind-down of the inkjet business.

The company will, however, continue to sell ink to existing customers of inkjet printers.

Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after struggling to adapt to the digital age, also said it received “significant interest” from suitors for its printing kiosks and scanner businesses.

The company said it expects to cut 200 more jobs, adding to the 1,000 announced earlier this month. It has cut 2,700 jobs so far this year.

Kodak, which once employed more than 60,000 people, expects to emerge from bankruptcy in 2013 as a much leaner company. The latest jobcuts will reduce its workforce to 13,100.

The company said it was still in talks to sell its patents, estimated to be worth between $2.2 billion and $2.6 billion, and that it will submit a motion to a bankruptcy court to extend its right to file a reorganization plan until February 28, 2013.

Kodak said earlier this month that it may abandon efforts to auction its 1,000 digital imaging patents, and instead set up a new licensing company to help repay creditors.

According to media reports, Kodak received only sub-$500 million bids from investor groups, including Apple Inc and Google Inc.

Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty